@@sam4D Correction, this engine was developed and marketed by Daihatsu. Toyota bought Daihatsu and thus it is now a "Toyota" engine. I owned one, and it is good, but not as good as the Mitsubishi Mirage/Space Star engine I have now. The tolerances are smaller in Mitsubishi engines (no oil consumption) and Mitsubishi of course puts a balance shaft in the engine (less vibrations).
I hate when people talk bad about the Geo Metro when they haven't even seen one (drove) or owned one. They are one of the most durable pieces of machinery out there. I've owned about five of the them and keep coming back to them.
Mine is 21 YO 1.0 just had the gaskets replaced to eliminate oil drips. But I don't drive it like a car and driver editor and get about 40 MPG. I wish that 5 speed were a Dana variglide CVP though.
The 3 cylinder of the 80's/90s weren't crap. The Daihatsu Charade G11 Diesel, held the Mpg record up until recently, and the petrol 3 cylinder 1.0 in the same car also produced 7 more horsepower than the same era 4 cylinder 1.0 A series used in the Austin Metro. The japanese 3 cylinders are also bomb proof, and the Charade GTTI had over 100hp from a turbocharged 3 cylinder in the late 80's, so these new 'amazing' engines are nothing new.
I've a '96 Metro that has over 300,000 km on the clock, and not all of those were "nice easy" highway clicks. The old Suzuki 3 cyls will run forever with basic preventative. Yes, it only has MAYBE 60hp but at an average of 6.5L/100km and a 40L tank I'm not complaining. It still cruises at 100kph effortlessly and since it's ugly, dented, old and a manual I never have to worry about it being stolen.
The geo metro 1.0 L with the 5 speed manual , was simple and bullet proof. Got 40+ mpg and had lots of power for that light chassis. They've yet to make better cheaper cars than that.
I had a 1991 Daihatsu Charade 1.0 3-cylinder car. It was running on LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas). Only after 353640 km (210789 mi) was the engine beyond repair. I drove it from the Netherlands all over Europe and Turkey. After 320000 km there was oil in the cooling liquid and cooling liquid in the oil. No problem. Every 10000km or so I skimmed of the oil in the expansion tank. Not bad at all for what we call a shopping car. They are most likely designed for 10 years and 10000km / year.
Toyota's 1KR-FE engine is exceptional. 69HP. A little underpowered in a larger hatchback but if you go easy it will do 60MPG and they are a very resilient engine.
@@MrRedeyedJedi I'm surprised Toyota never collaborated with Yamaha like they did with the 2JZ to produce a 3 cylinder with some more power. I always thought you could extract more power out of that kind of displacement.
@@zoidberg444 it seems a lot of companies hold back on the iniection calibration, for fuel economy and emissions. Few modern engines in general seem to be set up to their full potential. The same engine mine has at 105hp is in the Daytona 675 and although the same engine, produces around 135 horse power.
+WAVETUBE84 I have a 92 Metro convertible. Its getting tired but still gets 40mpg average. It used to average 46mpg. I built the Diesel Geo Metro (its on RU-vid) with Kubota 3 cylinder D905 engine. It got 70mpg during testing. They are fun little cars and nobody breaks into them to steal anything.
kimmer6 Did you turbocharged it? Did you crank up the fuel rack? Do the stock Kubota injection pumps have a provision for boost compensation to reduce smoke?
This guy doesnt know what he is talking about. I used to own a Daihatsu Charade GTti and it was amazing. Its 996 cc 3cl turbocharged engine was putting out 105 hp at and it was an engineering masterpiece. It had low fuel consumption , very high reliability and it was super fast. It could reach 200 km/h for nothing. This car was truly amazing not a piece of crap. I have put to shame many cars that are considered fast with that "piece of crap".
Dimitris Holy crap! 105 horsepower out of 1 liter? Mercedes diesels were barely able to squeeze 125 horsepower out of THREE liters. But I suppose they were understressed and very reliable.
@@gregorymalchuk272 diesels work differently than gasoline engines. You will get a MUCH higher fuel efficiency with a diesel, even though it has MORE cc than a gas. Also diesel engines trade some of their horsepower for MUCH higher low end torque. While a 125HP gas engine will barely move at 1.500 RPM, an 125HP diesel engine at 1.500 RPM would literally fly. This means that you dont have to downshift in a diesel and rev high, which leads to much better fuel efficiency. Also diesel engines are usually a lot more reliable
"80's and early 90's 3 cyls were crap" Meanwhile my 96 Metro 1.0 3 has over 300,000 km on it, still runs as well as the day it rolled off the production floor, still gets at least 6.5 L/100km (about 35mpg). Considering how well it's doing I expect it to run for at least another 150,000 km without issue.
The Daihatsu 3 cylinders engines were everything but crap. In fact, these were quite reliable and the GTTI version was an awesome piece of tech for its era This guy clearly doesn't know what de f* he's talking about.
+Pip Master As for the Geo Metro ones...meh. They make a barely-usable 62 HP and 26 lb/ft of torque, and get 55 MPG, but you cannot do anything with the motor after starting it until it's fully warmed up unless you don't mind replacing a cracked head, and sometimes even having to replace the whole engine due to a cracked block.
Out of habit I always let my car warm up the minimum of 3 minutes if its been sitting overnight I usually I won't drive it till its all the way to normal operating temperature these genes were built with the minimal amount of metal needed to build the motor, so yeah you're right about just starting up and driving off and eventually cracking the cylinder head. They also have a bad tendency of cooking exhaust valves at around 150,000- 200,000 miles, so I always use 89 octane, burns a little cooler.
my 1992 Geo Metro is rated at 55 horsepower @ 58 foot pounds of torque @ 3300 rpm it weighs 1593 pounds with a dry fuel tank. They're not as useless as you think.
My 1986 Chevy Sprint had a 3 cylinder engine that was still going at over 110,000 miles. I was young and dumb and I never once changed the engine oil. What I did was when the engine oil was getting a little low I would just add new engine oil and top off the existing BLACK oil. I am saying I never changed the oil or drained all of it out, not once! I never changed the oil filter. Truthfully in the end the little car that could was still driving fine but she was blowing out grey smoke from the tailpipe because the oil was that diry. Can you imagine how much dirt and sludge accumulated in the engine and having me the owner only just adding more oil into the existing black oil for that many years (about 11 years). The car was peppy for it's claimed 45 h.p., on long drives I remember getting over 55 mpg. and around time 42 mpg was the average. That was excellent back then. I purchased a new Ford 1997 Crown Victoria as her replacement. That car was destroyed in a terrible 3 car collision and was hit from behind. I liked the Ford so much that I purchased a brand new still on the "showroom" floor Model Year 2000 Ford Crown Victoria V-8 Engine Intercepter version of this model on November 1999 which we still use everyday and she is 100% reliable even after 23 years. I admit that in November 2022 we had to replace the heater coil and then in January 2023 we replaced most of the front end steering parts. But what do you expect from a car with over 200,000 miles on it and is now 23 years old? Today is April 18, 2023. The paint has held up and she still looks very good. She is 100% dependable and as I said she is our daily driver. - Peter age 73
3Cly in the Metro was simple and reliable, though not powerful. owned a 92. used it as a delivery and courier vehicle. put 100,000 miles on it in ONE year. bought it with 70K for $700, sold it with 177K for $250. car interior was crappy, but never failed to run, and AC was ice cold. 38city. 50+hwy. loved it.
@@luarbiasawaras8700 I looked on eBay Motors. I only found one. A 91 XFI model.. (the most desired one) 147,000 miles. $2300. The older VW rabbit and Jetta diesels from the 1980s are also extremely expensive. That's been true for a while. A very nice clean one is over $4,000. Especially the caddy the pickup truck version of the golf. When I bought my metro they were more common, although not a popular car. But I was using it for delivery and so was looking for something efficient and easy to park. Bought it for $700, I drove it for about a year and a half put over 100,000 miles on it in one year. And sold it to somebody for $250. In North America the big problem with these was that they were basically kind of considered a trashy car. Particularly the interiors on them fell apart pretty badly. Also they had a serious rusting problem around the frame area right where the front suspension mounts. And so a lot of times the car would look okay but the control arms would rust off of the frame and it really wasn't fixable. Mine was the three cylinder with five speed manual transmission and AC. Besides that it had roll-up windows and had a pretty basic interior. But that engine was fantastic, I never had to do anything to it. The only failure I had with the car was for some reason it tended to go through rear wheel bearings. Which is weird because the car doesn't weigh anything particularly on the rear axle. Quite possible that they were installing an over torquing the bearings, it's pretty easy to do if you're not knowledgeable and how that style bearing gets installed.
Stepping away from cars, but still on the topic of triple-cylinder engines: 1997 Polaris XLT. 600cc (0.6L) triple, 98hp. 1996 Polaris 680 Ultra: 680cc (0.68L/0.7L) 155hp.
The god father of the 3 cyl engines was the one in the 1987- 1993 Daihatsu charade Gtti. Twin cam 12 valve turbo! 101 hp standard, went up to 170hp just with minor mods, with a weight of 830kg, it was a rocket.
I agree had loads of them, better on fuel than all of them, 20 + years ahead of these. that blokes obviously doesn't know his cars. like someone else too what about the vw 3 pot.
I had an 87 Sprint Turbo for over 18 years, sold it in 2010 still running great. Quick and over 42 MPG. Some of these get only 36 MPG? Kind of gas guzzlers for a small car. The Mirage seems the most sensible choice, they get 45 MPG or better according to owners. Seems the Fiesta 1.0 ECO tech is a good 2nd choice, if you are more concerned with speed, with fuel economy 2nd and still pretty good.
I'm waiting for GM to put three cylinder engines in full size Siverado pickup trucks. Now they have four cylinder engines in those trucks, something at one time I never thought would be done.
Wow, mister.... I had 1980 Daihatsu Charade (living in Chino Hills,Southern California) and I can tell you, you have never sat in that car! Not luxury,but enough space,as the seat was adujstabe even for big man...but the engine! Whoa!.That was something else. 998cc 3 cylinder, RPM red line was somewhere at 7000. In Diamond Bar(next to Chino hills), there is a very steep 2 lane road - Chino Hills parkway, from Grand Avenue intersection, going direction Chino Hills. On that hill road I rode my stock Daihatsu in 3rd gear(it was 5 speed manual)at nearly 6000 RPM and the and the only stock car, able to pass me was Corvette....Camaros, Pontiacs or Cadillacs or anything, just could not even keep up. People knew me and many have tried(as I lived there 11 years) many times...It was always racing uphill. Once I went to San Francisco in 5Hrs and 20 min I was looking at the bay water...all the way 95 miles/hr.....that is - even going up the Grapewine pass on North side of LA, with average mileage of 44 miles/Gallon. (Specked at 64 miles per Gallon at 55 MPH speed). Although not a real luxury, it was comfortable and the trunk/hatchback could take more then Cadillac. I always thought it was my best car(and I had 19 cars all together). So, saying that Daihatsu was a crapp 80's car is a miss-characterising it. Maybe Chevy Metro or Subaru Justy...But definitelly not Daihatsu ! Unfortunately my son wrecked it in accident with some 150K on it...
Hi, Just wanted to say that you forgot the VW Up 1.0l 3cylinder with 75hp using no turbo. This is stronger than the Mitshubishi in case you haven't realized. Still great video and I love your show.
There's a new one: the PSA (Citroen, Peugeot) PureTech? 130 HP on 1.2l, that's about 108 HP/l but boy are these suckers easy on fuel and max torque starts at 1500 rpm. Runs smooth, fairly quiet and sounds decent on its own unlike the BMW ones.
*+radio boys* Brian Cooley forgot to mention of all the "direct injection" engines, a great many require decarbonization of the intake valves at as little as 20,000 miles. Simply remove the intake manifold and attached turbo ducting. Then get an air blasting kit with walnut shell for grit. Blast each intake valve clean of the carbon that is sticking the valve (the indication service is required). Reassemble and roll. Cost at the shop 4 hrs at $55-$80/hr. The fix is to get an engine that has injectors serving the intake port of the cylinder or injecting into a plenum chamber which feeds the intake manifold. I think direct injection is going to be one of those ideas that won't make it.
+radio boys I agree with you, but kinda hard to determine longevity with brand-new engines! I'd worry more about MPG myself, since bodies tend to rust out quicker (at least up in PA) than engines tire out. But yeah, HP (particularly displacement-specific HP) is almost meaningless in this class of engines.
+CNET You have forgotten the Nissan Micra 1.2 liter DIG-S engine... I drive one and it's a wonderful piece of machinery, it produces 98 horse powers and 147 of torque... I think it packs a powerful punch ;)
There was a little known of, but incredibly way ahead of its time 3 cylinder engine produced in the mid to late fifties by the Turner Manufacturing Company of Wolverhampton in the UK (alas, way too off the wall for those times though!), It was a 2.1 litre 3 cylinder scavenge blown all aluminium diesel 2 stroke, an extremely innovative and handsome looking engine indeed and amongst other things was in fact used in the LandRover. It utterly slashed running and maintenance costs for then! The US variant was know as the "Cerlist," this particular triple was used by the military in the rare but gorgeous looking forward control jeep.
The best 3 cylinder engine is Suzuki's powerplant currently used in the Arctic Cat T660. The newest in the F/K serries engines. Suzuki has been the BOSS of 3 bangers for 40 years.
The little 1988 Suzuki F6A R engine makes 115.2BHP & 140.7 Nm/Lt (547cc l3 = 63BHP @7500rpm - 77Nm @4000rpm) That makes this engine the number 1 or 2 in the list (considering the ford ecoboost engine doesn't transmit all the 123HP to the wheels) :)
Daihatsu 3 Cylinder engines are carp? Wtf? You dont know what you talking about.Till to the 2010 the Daihatsu CB80 993ccm which was produced in 1987 was the most powefulled 3cylinder at a production car.105hp at street carup to 200hp at the rallye cars.
Daihatsu uses "Zero Defect Engineering". The engines can easily last 50 years. Toyota owned and now Toyota uses their strict quality control methods...
I've got two Charade GTti's, one fully stock, one fully modified putting out close to 200 bhp, suffering from blown headgasket now, but I'm going to rebuild it with ARP headstuds... Amazing pieces of engineering. I'll always keep them top. 👍
Tony Vo I wish I could be all in. I just hope I can snag one when my family's car is paid for in a year and a half... I am specifically waiting on how well it does in the crash test.
It would be awesome if a US OEM started offering the 5 stroke 3 cylinder engine invented by Gerhard Schmitz. The prototype engine generated 138 hp @ 7000 rpms, and 122.5 lb-ft @ 5000 rpms on a conservative tune. That's 185.7 hp/liter. The real kicker is that it gets diesel fuel economy, because its able to extract far more work out of the expanding gases via its 14.5:1 total expansion ratio, yet high pressure cylinders only have a 7:1 compression ratio.
Two-Cylinder engines are made by Fiat at the moment. The Twin-air engine spits out 90 hp with 875cc in the Panda Cross, and 105 in the 500 Lounge. The most normal however is 85bhp in the small 500.
And here in Spain i have 3,0 L Naturally aspirated Carbureted Ford Capri that gets 20 Mpg haha i'd much rather have that than get better fuel consumption
There are other 3-cylinder engines that should have been on the list, since it's listed by power/liter. Ford 1.0 L I3: 140 PS (140 PS/L) (Ford Fiesta Red and Black Edition) Honda ECA1 1.0 L: 70 PS (68 PS/L) (Honda Insight first generation!) Toyota 1KR-FE 1.0 L: 71 PS (71 PS/L) Volkswagen Group 1.0 L: 75 PS (75 PS/L) Volkswagen Group 1.2 L: 88 PS (73 PS/L) Volkswagen Group 1.2 L diesel: 75 PS (63 PS/L)
Specific Horsepower is a dumb metric for comparing vehicles. 1. You'll have to rev the engine up to 8000 RPM to get peak power. 2. The turbocharger effectively increases the engine displacement.
Greetings from a fan over in Denmark.. I see that you had the Opel Adam on this list, which is very commendable. A little update. Since you´ve mentioned a purely European model in this list, I´d like to note, that Ford has an even more powerful 1.0 Ecoboost enginge, here in Europe. It´s a 140hp 1.0 that is found in the Ford Fiesta Black edition, and Red edition.. Thought perhaps, those should have been mentioned, as the clear winners.. Though, they are still basically the same 1.= engine.. But, it was power you were looking for, so.....
that's really odd... I'm always getting compliments about my 1992 Geo Metro 3 cylinder, that I keep for a backup car. Must be something to do with The near $4 a gallon of gas here in California.... hmmm....
I have a 2016 BMW 118i, has the B38 1.5T 3 cyl that the Mini has. There I was thinking it was a reliable little lump, aaaaand at 37,000 miles, "DRIVETRAIN MALFUNCTION" error comes out of nowhere, engine shaking like an earthquake, loss of power, and white smoke plumes coming out the rear! Came up as misfire so replaced all plugs and ignition coils. Codes cleared, warning lights gone, yet the problem persists. Maybe I just got unlucky? Car has been serviced at BMW every 10,000 miles, no out standing recalls either.
Nice list of 3l engines out there. Back in the days I wanted the AWD Justy, was a peppy little critter! May I add to the list but I don't think these will reach the US the Fiat 500 Twin Air (1.2l) and the Nissan March (Micra in other markets with the HR engine) and in some variations of the Tiida (Versa for the US)
Honda E07? First quarter in college (last in HS)I took an automotive course at a big two year community college. A month in, if even that long, we were rebuilding SOHC engines with variable intake tracks and stuff I wasn't used too. Heck, never knew they used 3 bangers till then in cars/vans. They had been turbo-charged as well .8 bars-1.0 bar depending on what group you were in. Ours was beat and had a nice scratch n cylinder 2 which we got lucky with. Bored it out and the oversized rings and rebuild kit fit and we had it humming. Head was warped but was easily decked. We were all worried about the top end parts since OHV V-8's were all the rage and half of us drove old Fox Body 5.0's. I think the E series should be up there since it's still in production and an Earth Dreams version is made in Ohio? I'd understand if it were the "Top 3 3 Cylinders", but Nissans "Carry On" or "Baggage Claim" rocket isn't available to the public in production numbers. We will never see the DIG-T R in a production car. I hoped a larger, heavier version with less ponies would make the scene due to high performance hybrids. Just another "We have the materials and technology" teasers. I love Nissan and Toyota but they do that way to much. We've seen three version of the new Supra already! Just hope they keep it straight 6 mated to an awesome six-speed. No automatics or anything that's why I love Cobras. Why buy a car that's meant to be driven and pretend your shifting with two paddles? Anyhow check out Honda's 3 bangers. Even the older ones with carbs are still going.
Except that the BMW B38 engine can be easily tuned to 150hp for daily driving while the Ford one cannot. I've heard that with some minor changes you can take it to ~170hp. Not bad for a 1.5L engine.
What about the vw group 1l tsi with a 105 horsepower which you can find in almost all of thier cars today. Or the renault 0.9l turbocharged engine with 90 hprsepower
Peugeot 107 (toyota engine) it is great ! And 4 doors it is more practic car, biger then look inside. Also here in Romania Dacia make Logan and Sandero 3 pistons TCE great car.
the Mitsubishi engine that smart used in the 451 came at 71 and 84bhp (turbo). the turbo can be remapped to reliably give you almost 130 bhp. i really don't understand why they detuned it so much at the ECU. 130 per litre beats all of these apart from the race car. i'd be interested to see what they all make with a reliable remap.
Ok being a Ford fan I knew who was gonna win , But why almost no tech talk about the engine. Ford engineers actually did carry this engine on a flight and shoved it in an overhead , HMM could be where he got that line??? LOL It has some amazing technology in it. Its been available in europe in a bunch of models and much more horsepower (over 200) because they have good fuel unlike the usa.and ran one of the top 10 fastest laps ever at the nubergring in a stock formula ford For anyone who wants to know
